


Bridging the Gap

by rosegoldmarble



Category: Naruto
Genre: (who minors in medical ninjutsu), Bisexual Character, Gay Character, Gen, M/M, Other, TaijutsuSpecialist!Rin, Team Minato - Freeform, Trans Character, brief unintentional misgendering of a character
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-07-24
Updated: 2017-07-24
Packaged: 2018-12-06 13:51:18
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 948
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11601963
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/rosegoldmarble/pseuds/rosegoldmarble
Summary: AU where Obito only got his hand crushed under the boulder, and Minato came in time to save them all. Team Minato is a bit of a wreck: Kakashi and Obito are left to wallow in crushing guilt about each other's injuries, and taijustsu prodigy Rin is determined to help them adjust to fighting with their disabilities. (Oh, and she's had enough of the Uchiha clan leaders' shit.)





	Bridging the Gap

Minato gives the report at 06:20, after reluctantly leaving the hospital. The crisp morning air feels like lead in his lungs.  “I dispatched of approximately 90% of them,” he had said.

Kakashi had been in no shape to fight. He was barely conscious, having just been knocked out by a piece of the cave’s ceiling. Obito had pushed him to safety from the rest of the falling rocks, but ended up having his left hand crushed, pinning him to the ground. Minato arrived just in time to see a shaking but determined Rin sever Obito’s hand, freeing him. Minato told her he would get rid of all the enemy nin, leaving her to seal up the gaping wound.

Minato had not expected her to follow him into battle.

He remembers the day he was given the list of names. Hatake Kakashi, Uchiha Obito, and Nohara Haru.

Her face is calm as she engages an enemy nin in battle. The same calmness she possesses when she heals Obito’s scrapes after a sparring match, talking him through little pieces of advice: _remember to always guard your chin, widen your stance next time,_ _stretch before and after sparring._

He remembers going over the list of his soon-to-be students again after dinner that night. Hatake Kakashi, son of the White Fang, a prodigy even as a toddler. Uchiha Obito, a wellspring of potential with his future Sharingan. Nohara Haru, placed 25th in a class of 51 students, civilian-born. But he soon learned that his grades did not reflect his taijutsu and medical ninjutsu prowess.

Rin, her face and arms bloodstained, blocks the enemy nin’s hand with ease, going straight for the kill. She slides the kunai into his neck, removes it, and whirls around to face the next nin. Minato has never so strongly felt grief and pride jumbled together before.

After the third training session with his students, he goes home, finds the list on his dresser, crosses out _Haru_ and writes _Rin_.

Minato turns away to dispatch of the last few enemy nin. Seconds later he sees Rin on the ground, a much older nin pinning her to the ground, her kunai knocked to the side. Rin blocks the nin’s dagger with the back of her left hand.

The twelve year old girl reaches out, placing her right hand over his heart.

The nin jerks, as if he has been shocked. The Yellow Flash makes to move, to protect her, but he’s too late. She pushes harder on his chest and he hears something _implode._ The nin slumps over on top of her.

Minato appears at her side, tossing the dead nin aside. “Rin,” he says.

Her expression still has that same calmness, but it’s tainted with something Minato can’t quite place. “I’m okay,” she says weakly, and he offers her a hand, which she takes. “Is that-is that all of them?” Rin asks, now sitting up. She wipes at her face, presumably trying to get all the blood off, but only smears it further across her face. Something in his chest twists painfully.

“Yes, we’re safe.” Minato reaches out, but Rin places a gentle hand on his arm, stopping him. “It’s okay,” she assures him, “I can walk.” And she does, leaving her sensei frozen for a moment.

“I won’t tell,” Minato calls softly after her, stopping her in her tracks. He feels it is necessary to tell her- it would cause Rin a lot of trouble if it ever got out she (quite easily) used her medical ninjutsu to kill. It was, after all, against medic code.

“I know,” she says, not turning to look at him. “Thank you, sensei.”

\----

Rin had killed several people and burst a man’s heart yesterday.

She had stepped out of Kakashi’s hospital room to get some water. He was, of course, hospitalized for chakra exhaustion and for… Rin feels sick. Kakashi’s eye had been destroyed on his way to save her from the cave. It was being monitored closely on the chance of infection, but the doctor said it seemed unlikely.

Obito is a few rooms over. Every time she thinks of him, she flashes back to her hand tightening around her kunai, ready to slice her friend’s hand clean off. The kunoichi had washed his blood off her face in the women’s bathroom with foamy white soap. Obito has been unconscious for nineteen hours and counting. With a pounding heart, she pours herself a cup of water in the cafeteria.

When she returns to Kakashi’s room, she stops in the doorway, hand flying to her mouth.

Obito is sitting on the side of a sleeping Kakashi’s bed. He looks up at her, eyes wide.

“Obito,” Rin croaks, “you’re awake.”

“ _Rin_.” Obito doesn’t have a chance to get up, because Rin’s got him trapped in a hug before he can get to his feet.  

“ _I’m so sorry._ ” Rin wants to cry, but somehow can’t. She fiercely wants to feel more, burst into tears, crumble into a hysteria like she used to when she was five and she forgot the hand signs for basic jutsus. Her teacher would frown and tell her, _"Haru, focus. I know you can do this."_

“You saved me,” is all Obito says, resting his head on her shoulder.

Rin can still taste his blood in her teeth, feel his pulse as she did when she was sealing up the wound she gave him, his eyes trusting through the pain and shock.

She hardens her resolve as she hugs him tighter. They'd never get hurt like this again, not if she could could help it. They were going to survive and thrive, _she would make sure of it._

**Author's Note:**

> Next chapter: Kakashi and Rin talk, Kakashi and Obito talk (get ready for guilt galore), and Rin braces herself to shoulder a ton of responsibility (aka planning how to help Obito and Kakashi adjust to fighting with their disabilities).
> 
> (Please drop a kudo and/or a comment if you'd like! I crave that sweet, sweet validation.)


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